Category Archives: Meta

Google Ads has become a non-insignificant contributor to the bottom line here at HeroMachine Central. As of yet I haven't put any ads in the actual apps themselves (the big blank white box in the upper right corner). The only way I can figure out how to place them there means that the ad is still present when you go to "widescreen" mode.

So my question is, how irritating would that be? You'd still be able to output the image in widescreen format without the ad being there, but online it would be present.

If you've been enjoying the "Zombocalypse Now" adventures, author Matt Youngmark's latest adult "Chooseomatic" adventure features super-heroes and the awesome title "Thrusts of Justice"! Today's the release date and they're trying to bomb the Amazon store with orders, so if you're considering a purchase, this is the time to do it.

Here's a quick overview of the book:

You're just an unemployed reporter until a cryptic warning and an explosion outside your favorite bar send you down the road to becoming one of three superpowered heroes (or, potentially, villains - we're not here to judge). Dark vigilante? Armored space ­cop? Wisecracking mutant? Whichever path you choose, ­you'd better get busy, because a mysterious plot is afoot and - like it or not - you're the only thing standing ­between the forces of evil and ­utter annihilation.

Thrusts of Justice is an action/comedy ­reimagining of the choose-your-own-path books you grew up with. There are 90 possible endings (81 of which result in your ­humiliating death).

Humiliating death, people, what could be better?! Get out there and buy yours today!

Tonight I added two slightly nifty features to the ol' blog. First, I added a "current contest" widget in the right side bar that will (duh) show you whatever contest is the current one. I bet you could not have figured that out had I not said it so forthrightly.

Second, the "Sketch of the Day" category now shows you the actual images instead of just the list of headlines. It's the same thing I did for the "Hall of Fame" category a few days ago.

I've tinkered with the site a bit and wanted to note it for both of you who are interested.

1. The "Featured Character" link in the header now automatically shows a random image from the set of 30+ blurbs I've created over time. Now I don't have to edit the header manually each time with the latest one, I just create it and put it in the right directory.
2. Clicking on the "Featured Character" image in the header, or choosing the "Hall of Fame" category in the right column, takes you to the newly formatted gallery page showing off some of the best contest winners from the past. The intent of this page is, of course, to honor those who have created some of the best images ever, but also to impress new visitors with the versatility of the program. Like the featured blurb, all I have to do is put a post in the "Hall of Fame" category and it will automatically show up on that page.
3. The big header image at the top now rotates randomly with every page you go to as well.

As you can see, nothing major, but it took more work than I thought it would so I wanted to trumpet it from the virtual rooftops. Yay me!

My apologies, but when I put in the new Google Ads banner and the Hall of Fame "featured character" graphic, I apparently broke the site by forgetting to put a closing anchor tag in the link.

It should be working fine now.

Allegedly I am getting my replacement computer today. As you can expect, results of the contest will be delayed as judging without an actual computer is a bit difficult. Thank you for your patience and as always, my apologies.

As you can see, things look quite different around here. Here's the recap:

1. I upgraded the Forums in an effort to fix some of the problems they were having (like being unable to upload TXT files and IE not working).
2. This broke the forums.
3. I figured out that it was the iFeature Pro base them I was using that was breaking the new forums (and probably the old ones too), so I replaced it with the one you see now.
4. Now you should be able to make new posts in the forums in any browser. At least, all the ones I tried, worked.
5. For some reason this new theme takes a nice wide one-column layout (like I use for HeroMachine 3) and shoves it way over to the right. That meant I had to make the size of the HM3 app much smaller, like by 33%. Unacceptable. But the only way to fix it was to break the layout with an extra DIV tag.
6. I decided having a nice big HM3 app window was more important than the layout, so now you may notice that the right column on the HM3 page is shoved way down below the footer, where it doesn't belong.

So the site was ok, then I broke it trying to fix it, then I fixed and broke some other stuff on purpose. Now it works, even though it's not at all how I want it to ultimately look.

Once I have a full time personal computer again, I'll pretty it up.

Feel free to chime in with problems you find -- I apologize for being grumpy about it while I was in the middle of it.

Edited To Add: To upload images or text files into your forum posts, use the new "add attachment" button below where you type your reply.

Edited Again to Add: Check the comments for further updates, but basically I got the one-column thing working properly.

The new forum version is broken when using the current WordPress theme. That means I have to pick a new theme, which in turn means you're going to be seeing some funky stuff going down in the city as I try them on for size. Sadly the "preview" feature that lets me test them without affecting you doesn't tell me if the forums get fixed in that theme or not.

Since I no longer have a computer at home this is the best I can do.

In short, I know it's broken and will be looking different every time you log in. I know the forums aren't working. That is what I am trying to fix. The point of this post is, you don't need to tell me it isn't working -- believe me, I know.

Since I can't do anything else without Photoshop or my HeroMachine files, I'm going to upgrade the forums to the latest Simple:Press version. Hopefully it won't break anything.

Ha! Of course it's going to break things, that's what upgrades DO!

My laptop for work (which also had all of my HeroMachine stuff on it) was stolen from my truck last night. That's going to put a serious crimp in my posting ability for a few days at least while I get things back in order.

In other words, it might be till the weekend or later before you see regular updates here. My apologies.